Jed Perl: Art For Art’s Sake Is Losing As Liberals Need It To Do More

“In our data- and metrics-obsessed era the imaginative ground without which art cannot exist is losing ground. Instead of art-as-art we have art as a comrade-in-arms to some more supposedly stable or substantial or readily comprehensible aspect of our world. Now art is always hyphenated. We have art-and-society, art-and-money, art-and-education, art-and-tourism, art-and-politics, art-and-fun. Art itself, with its ardor, its emotionalism, and its unabashed assertion of the imagination, has become an outlier, its tendency to celebrate a purposeful purposelessness found to be intimidating, if not downright frightening.”

From 2005: I’m left-handed, with an ink-smudging overhand hook so exaggerated that my first-grade teacher, who in 1962 was already a thoroughly cranky old woman, tried briefly and vainly to get me to write with ... read more

“In a sensible language like English important words are connected and related to one another by other little words. The Romans in that stern antiquity considered such a method weak and unworthy. Nothing would satisfy ... read more

Opera lovers can be forgiven for imagining the works they love were born in a flash of inspiration. Sometimes the journey is a bit more arduous. The UNCSA Composition Department met with Jennifer Higdon via ... read more

Bill Charlap Trio, Uptown Downtown (Impulse) Pianist Charlap’s trio dazzles the listener from beginning to end of this album. He, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington do not bowl us over ... read more

Julian Bream and Malcolm Arnold talk about Arnold’s Guitar Concerto, Op. 67, then perform its finale, with Arnold conducting members of the Philharmonia Orchestra. This performance was originally telecast by the BBC on November 19, ... read more

A small Degas show, “Drawn in Colour,” at the National Gallery until 7 May, comprises a splendid group of pictures, chiefly on loan from the Burrell Collection, near Glasgow, complemented by some from the National’s ... read more

The ironing board has an iconic status in the history of British theatre. What became known as kitchen-sink drama was more properly ironing-board drama. In 1956, the originality of John Osborne’s Look Back in ... read more

Leonard Bernstein leads the London Symphony in a live performance of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps, originally telecast by the BBC on November 27, 1966: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related ... read more

Pete Turner, the photgrapher whose work became cover art for dozens of memorable jazz albums,has died at 83. His pictures, including the one above, often appeared on albums of Creed Taylor’s ... read more

In this week’s “Sightings” column, which appeas in the online edition of today’s Wall Street Journal, I take a look at Edward Albee’s art collection, which is being auctioned off next week. Here’s an excerpt. ... read more